Revolution

Album: The Future + Dreams Of The Past (2022)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Bastille vocalist Dan Smith utilizes two different meanings of the word "revolution." He uses space-centered imagery in the chorus to talk about intimacy with his lover.

    I don't want to go around the sun
    With anyone but you babe


    While we live our lives on Earth, our planet revolves around the sun. There is only one person Smith wants to have a human connection with as Earth travels in its orbit.

    In the verses, Smith talks about the revolutionary technology innovators who spend their lives trying to positively change the world.

    So bring on quiet revolutions in our heads
    Keep on fantasizing futures we should try to make
    As we're fallin' through the universe again
    Still the jokers and the thieves never fall down


    Smith is overawed by the vision of these people. "If you're one of them, like an inventor, activist or scientist, you have to have the ability to imagine a version of the future that's better than what currently exists, and then have that energy to actually work to make it happen," he explained. "Alongside all the other things life throws at you. So, I wanted to nod to those people and the idea that before anything big happens, most of them will have had these little revolutions in their minds, a change of perspective that leads to something bigger."
  • Smith wrote "Revolution" with Bastille's regular producer, Mark Crew, and Ryan Tedder (Beyoncé's "Halo," Adele's "Rumour Has It," Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" and Ellie Goulding's "Burn"). Tedder helped as a sounding board and executive producer for the Give Me The Future album and co-wrote two tracks, "Distorted Light Beam" and "Club 57." He also co-penned Marshmello's collaboration with Bastille, "Happier."
  • Smith, Crew and Dan Priddy's production for the rave-ready electronic club banger takes inspiration from Quincy Jones and The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face."
  • Bastille released "Revolution" as the lead single from The Future + Dreams Of The Past on July 28, 2022. The album is a three-part extended edition of the Give Me the Future record, where the band explores a futuristic wonderland free from restrictions. "Revolution" was one of the core songs for Give Me The Future right from the beginning, and Smith described it as "a tough decision" not to include it on the first version of the album.

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